Rashi

Little is known concerning the life of Rashi. Owing to
various causes not a single work is extant that might be
used as a guide for the establishment of minor facts.
Generally speaking, Jewish literature in the middle ages
was of an impersonal character; practically no memoirs
nor autobiographies of this period exist. The disciples of
the great masters were not lavish of information concerning them. They held their task to be accomplished
when they had studied and handed on the master's
works; regard for his teachings ranked above respect
for the personality of the author. But the figure of
Rashi, as though in despite of all such obstacles, has
remained popular. People wanted to know all the
details of his life, and they invented facts according to
their desires. Fiction, however, fell short of the truth.
Legend does not represent him so great as he must
actually have been. In the present work, too, I shall be
obliged to resort to comparisons and analogies, to supplement by hypotheses the scanty information afforded
by history, yet I shall distinguish the few historic facts
from the mass of legends in which they are smothered.

As of old many cities in Greece asserted that they were
the birthplace of Homer, the national poet, so a number
of cities disputed for the honor of being the birthplace

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